Computerworld (album)
| Computer world | ||||
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| Kraftwerk studio album | ||||
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Publication |
May 1981 |
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| Label (s) | KlingKlang EMI / Capitol Records |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
34:21 |
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| occupation | Ralf Hütter , Florian Schneider , Karl Bartos , Wolfgang Flür | |||
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Ralf Hütter, Florian Schneider |
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Studio (s) |
KlingKlang, Düsseldorf |
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Computerwelt is the eighth studio album by the band Kraftwerk . It was published as German, English, French and Japanese versions. The single “Taschenrechner” was the only one to have a text in the respective national language. The album is seen as trend-setting for electronic music and the genres of house and techno .
useful information
The album was recorded during a comparatively long period between 1978 and 1981 in the Kling-Klang-Studio in Düsseldorf . During this time, the studio was modernized to such an extent that the recording technology was almost identical to that which the band took on tour . Ralf Hütter summarized the basic idea of the album as follows: "We live in a computer world, so we made a song about it". In some countries the record company sent out promo discs with a real pocket calculator on which the band name and album title were written. These specimens are now sought-after collector's items.
Music and lyrics
The album begins with the track "Computerwelt". Although the song is reminiscent of organizations like Interpol , the FBI or Scotland Yard , it was published at a time when the RAF was growing again in Germany . The song dealt with the possible misuse of computer data by the police against the background of an affair involving a central file at the BKA in Wiesbaden .
In contrast to this song, the second piece, “Taschenrechner”, is rather light and playful. The band used samples from pocket calculators from Casio and Texas Instruments . In addition to German, it was recorded in English, French and Japanese. Apparently there were also versions in Polish and Spanish, but they were never officially published. In 1981, Kraftwerk played the piece in an Italian version entitled "Mini Calcolatore" in the Italian television program Discoring.
The third song "Numbers" is very rhythmic, the distorted singing counted in different languages such as English, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and French from one to eight, which is why this piece was later played as a countdown to the opening of the live performances . It goes straight to “Computerwelt Pt. 2 "over. The following “computer love” is comparatively calm and melancholy, band biographer Bussy describes it as “possibly the first robot blues”.
The sixth song “Heimcomputer” with its “crazy sounding sound segments, the syncopating electronic rhythm over which a two-line rhyme is repeated at different intervals” is regarded as one of the defining pieces for electronic music. The first five seconds are similar to the sound of a 1980 computer game called Speak & Spell . The French manager of the band Maxime Schmitt later emphasized that this similarity was purely coincidental. The last piece "It's More Fun to Compute" takes up the theme of the previous piece again. The lyrics show the band's ironic humor because they play with the sounds of different pinball machines .
layout
The yellow and black cover shows the alienated heads of the four band members on a terminal . On the back there are four dummies of the musicians on their consoles. The insert shows the same dummies in uniforms and with pocket computers . Ralf Hutter's dummy has a mini keyboard in his hand, Schneider has a computer, Bartos' dummy has a stylophone and Flür works on a kind of remote control. All props used were designed and built by Wolfgang Flür, the photos were taken in the KlingKlang studios. For the band and especially for Hütter, promotional photos were wasted time that they could better spend in the recording studio. For this reason, they decided to use the dummies.
tour
After the release, the band began the longest tour in their history. It was organized almost militarily precisely, the band traveled in an air-conditioned nightliner . It was the band's first world tour, during which they played around 90 shows within six months , and which took them to Australia , Japan , India and Eastern Europe . Kraftwerk had four large video screens made by Sony for the stage, on which they showed their music videos during the performances . During the performances, the musicians dressed in black stood in a semicircle, each with a console in front of him and behind him one of the video screens, on which the same images were always running synchronously. In front of the musicians there were fluorescent signs with the first names of the band members. The entire arrangement should express the unity of the band as a "man-machine", in which no person or element should be in the foreground. All shows ran according to the same scheme: First, the visitors were greeted by soft electronic sounds for half an hour before a robot voice announced the concert:
"Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, tonight from Germany, the man-machine - KRRRAFT-WERRRK"
The set list of the approximately two-hour concert was facilitated by the end of the tour to "The Voice of Energy", "uranium", "The sun, the moon, the stars" and "Ohm Sweet Ohm". Instead, "Metropolis" was added and "Heimcomputer" was moved to the end of the setlist and practically played as the German version of "It's more fun to compute". During the play "The Robots" the dummies were also used. The last show of the commercially very successful tour took place on December 14, 1981 in the "Zeppelin" in Oyten.
Track list
- Computer World - 5:06
- Calculator - 5:04
- Numbers - 3:20
- Computerworld, Pt. 2 - 3:11
- Computer love - 7:18
- Home computer - 6:19
- It's More Fun to Compute - 4:14
Reviews
The album is considered one of the most important albums in electronic music. Siggy Zielinski from Babyblaue Seiten classifies the pieces on the album as “sophisticated, innovative electronic pop songs at the time” and considers the track “Numbers” to be “a true techno orgy”. For Ned Raggett from Allmusic , Kraftwerk showed with the album that they are still one of the pioneers of the genre ten years after the band was founded. The online magazine Leonard's Lair considers the album to be timeless because of its “economical and clear production and the atmosphere that is inherent in it”. In a contemporary review from 1981, Der Spiegel showed little enthusiasm and wrote that the “internationally renowned Düsseldorf electronics band 'Kraftwerk' celebrated the blessings of the 'computer world' in banal pop pieces”.
literature
- Pascal Bussy: Kraftwerk: Man, Machine And Music . SAF Publishing, Wembley, England 2005, ISBN 978-0-946719-70-9 , pp. 112-125 (English).
- Andreas Greger: "Computers for the home". “Kraftwerk” musical vision of an electronic lifestyle (1981) . In: Contemporary historical research . No. 9 , 2012, p. 340–345 ( zeithistorische-forschungen.de [accessed on March 28, 2019]).
Web links
- Computerworld at Allmusic (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Bussy: Kraftwerk , p. 113
- ↑ Bussy: Kraftwerk , p. 115
- ↑ Bussy: Kraftwerk , p. 116
- ↑ Bussy: Kraftwerk , p. 121
- ^ Siggy Zielinski: Kraftwerk: Computer World. Baby Blue Pages , March 20, 2004, accessed February 26, 2010 .
- ^ Kraftwerk - Computer World. Leonard's Lair, accessed February 26, 2010 .
- ↑ Bubbling from the database . In: Der Spiegel . No. 24 , 1981 ( online ).